


Change is Coming

by Quipxotic



Series: The Spy and the Time Lord [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Ficlet, Friends to Enemies, Gen, MI6 Agents, Office, Post-Episode: s08e01 Deep Breath, Pre-Episode: s12e01 Spyfall Part 1, Present Tense, Regeneration, Spoilers for Episode: s12e01-02 Spyfall, Texting, Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22235665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quipxotic/pseuds/Quipxotic
Summary: The Master is planning his endgame when he gets a text from the Doctor.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & The Master (Dhawan)
Series: The Spy and the Time Lord [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600243
Kudos: 71





	Change is Coming

The Master is writing a report when his phone buzzes. He glances around the offices of MI6 but, as usual, no one is paying attention to their resident crackpot theorist. He wakes and unlocks the phone, smiling as he recognizes the familiar number. 

_“I’m back,”_ the Doctor’s message reads. No emojis or extra punctuation, which is out of character based on their months of texting. 

“I didn’t even know you were gone.” He tilts his head and adds. “Everything okay?”

_“Had an extended vacation.”_

_“Well, I say a vacation, more like centuries spent protecting a town against a galaxy of enemies.”_

“Which town,” the Master asks. 

_“That’s the part of this you have questions about? I knew I liked you for a reason.”_

The Master knows it doesn’t mean anything, the Doctor thinks he’s texting with O, after all; but the comment still gives him a little thrill. He grins. 

_“The town of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore.”_

Trenzalore. The planet where the Doctor died. The Master nods, finally understanding. “What brought you back,” he types, although he already knows the answer. 

_“I died.”_

_“Should have been in my last regeneration, but my people pulled some strings.”_

“Of course they did,” the Master mutters in disgust, temporarily dropping the facade of O. “You always were their favorite, despite their and your protests to the contrary, you ridiculous teacher’s pet.” 

“What’s that?” 

He looks up to see Sara from Research in the doorway to his office. “Oh nothing,” he gives her his best embarrassed, boyish smile. “Just…heard from an old classmate who’s back in town.” He puts his phone face down on his desk. “You know how it is.” 

“Come on, O, you’re not still holding grudges from THAT far back.” She walks in and he notices the box she’s carrying. “That must have been, what? Ten or more years ago? Let it go.” 

Longer than that, the Master thinks. “The oldest wounds take the longest to heal,” he replies, hiding his annoyance that a human with barely 40 years of experience on one backwater planet has the audacity to give him life advice. He makes a mental note to ensure Sara dies from an acute case of food poisoning and comes around his desk to take the box from her. “What’s this?” 

“All the information I could find in our archives about reports of lizard people living underground.” She shrugs. “We had a surprising amount, but then people will believe anything.” 

“Won’t they just.” He smiles again, feeling somewhat mollified. “Thanks for this. When do you need it back?” 

“No hurry. It’s not like it’s going to be useful to anyone but you.” She waves a quick goodbye and leaves. 

The Master sorts through the items in the box and is pleased with what he finds. Maybe he’ll upgrade Sara’s punishment to a few weeks in the hospital as a reward. 

Placing the box on his bookshelf under a sign reading “To be reviewed,” he returns to his phone. “Sorry,” he types. “Had to deal with some work stuff. I’m glad to hear you’re not dead.” 

_“Are you? I’m glad someone is.”_

The Master raises an eyebrow at that. Trouble in paradise? “Did something happen between you and your friend. What was her name? Clara…something?” 

_“Oswald. Clara Oswald.”_

_“This process…it’s complicated. Unpredictable. Sometimes the new incarnation is very different from the old one. It can be…difficult for the people left behind to adapt.”_

“Well if you will keep keeping pets around, Doctor,” he mutters, checking to make sure no one hears him this time. 

_“It’ll be fine.”_ Even in text form, it doesn’t sound like the Doctor believes it. 

“I’m sure,” the Master soothes. “And if it isn’t, there are other fish in the sea.” He attaches a photo of a Requiem shark swimming with its mouth open, showing its teeth. 

_“Very funny.”_

_“And thanks.”_

“No problem,” he replies. The Master looks at the time. “Gotta go. Work to finish up. Talk later?” 

_“Laters. I’ve got to see a woman about a Dalek.”_

The Master chuckles, feeling a little envious. Not for the first time, he considers “accidentally” bumping into the Doctor and going on a few adventures. But he can’t, he knows he can’t. There’s too high a risk of running into one of his other selves. 

It’s Missy’s time now. He can wait his turn. 

He goes back to working on his report. It’s titled “A Mission Overlap Analysis and Cost Benefit Comparison Between UNIT and Torchwood,” and argues for UNIT UK’s immediate shutdown as an redundant government program for which there is a corporate-funded replacement. He’s meeting an employee from the National Audit Office for drinks tonight. With a bit of hypnotic suggestion, she'll think she wrote the report and will submit it to her superiors. 

The Master smiles, showing a bit too much toothy malevolence to be confused with O. He knows the report won’t be acted on, at least not now, but it will lay the groundwork for the long game. 

And it’s a game he plans to win. 


End file.
